Conference
Join us at the 2024 Making Schools Work Conference
Join us in Nashville, Tennessee, July 9-12, 2024, for an unforgettable professional development event and share your strategies, struggles and successes during four days of learning, collaborating and networking. We offer hundreds of sessions on topics from CTE, math and literacy to addressing the effects of poverty and trauma and ensuring equitable access to quality instruction. Take home actionable strategies to advance your K-12 school improvement efforts and raise student achievement.
Learn with the leading experts in your field
Thomas Glanton
President, The Education Company
Thomas Glanton, Jr., is president and lead consultant for The Education Company, a national educational consulting company specializing in school improvement and the art of school leadership. Under his leadership, the company has served over 200,000 teachers and administrators in public, private, and charter schools across the U.S.
Glanton works directly with school and district leaders to develop their capacity to create school climates that are conducive to student success by focusing on operations, instructional leadership, data analysis and school performance.
An Atlanta native, Glanton has decades of experience in public school education, having served as a high school English teacher, a high school principal and an elementary school assistant principal. His application of a comprehensive discipline management program transformed a Title I school and earned him accolades as a Georgia PTA Principal of the Year.
Glanton also served as the director of leadership development for the DeKalb County School System, one of the most culturally diverse counties in the nation. Glanton speaks widely at national and regional education conferences and is an active member of various civic organizations and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc.
Joe and Dardi Hendershott
Co-founders, Hope 4 The Wounded, LLC
Joe Hendershott, co-founder of Hope 4 The Wounded, LLC, has an extensive background working with at-risk and wounded youth as a teacher, coach and administrator in traditional, alternative and correctional education settings.
Hendershott has served as a high school assistant principal, head principal, alternative school principal and principal at a residential facility.
Steph Jensen
Director of Community Contracts, Boys Town
Steph Jensen is the director of community contracts for Boys Town National Community Support Services.
Jensen joined Boys Town in 2003. She has been in the educational field since 1995, holding positions from middle school teacher, district reading specialist and school consultant, speaker and author.
In her 15 years with Boys Town, Jensen has overseen the implementation of external training contracts nationally and internationally. She has worked closely with organizations ranging from the Japanese Child Welfare Department to Chicago Public Schools Office of School Improvement.
Jensen applies her education knowledge and experience with school reform and transformation to schools across the country, helping them create healthy learning climates that focus on the social and emotional needs of students.
Nai Wang
eLearning, AI, Gamification & Esports Guru, KP Education Systems
Nai Wang is the eLearning, AI, Gamification & Esports Guru at KP Education Systems.
Nai, who has more than two decades of experience in digital education, leads multiple projects to utilize technology to narrow the digital divide and integrate gamification, artificial intelligence, and content proficiency into education. He has been involved in the development of AI-related projects since 2011. Amid the pandemic, his AI-powered educational platform, KP Compass, helped keep students engaged and learning while studying from home.
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Join us for upcoming conferences
Making Schools Work 2025
July 15-18, 2025
Mark your calendars for the 2025 Making Schools Work Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. The conference will be held at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.
Making Schools Work 2026
July 14-17, 2026
Mark your calendars for the 2026 Making Schools Work Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. The conference will be held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center.
Making Schools Work 2027
July 12-16, 2027
Mark your calendars for the 2027 Making Schools Work Conference in Louisville, Kentucky.
The conference will be held at the Kentucky International Convention Center.
We will add more information to this page as it gets closer to the conference date.
